Strange though, why no device name, etc, in the info? If that's for real, the savvier of the folks around here might be interested in having a look.

Sure folks are curious to hear about Page Plus with Pre 3. They're VZW-based, so maybe they'll let you activate it. Check the North America (CDMA) forums here and see how much luck others had.

I just got it today. It had just gone through a full erase reset. I just put it in dev mode to check out the device. No time to set up my webos account with this one yet. Well... I was looking for a 2nd hand android phone for page plus, and saw this verizon pre3 was on sale for only $75, I just have to have it. If it won't work on page plus, still a nice toy in my collection (as long as my wife doesn't find out about this).

The lead 5 characters of the Serial Number are definitely in line for Verizon Pre 3.

If you got an internal HP/Palm developer's phone and it has 2.2.5, most likely you can't connect to the App Cat or Backup servers due to not having an official release, unless you go the Impostah route...

That said, you might want to donate some info off the phone: Herrie is definitely one of the guys to talk to about how to proceed. John Steffes is another.

I sent the instructions to red_sun99 by email as well. I'm happy to help via chat/desktop sharing as well when required

Code:

The steps are as described below (all under Linux or Linux running in VirtualBox):
* Install java if you don't have it www.java.com
* Install the novacom driver, using Jason's Universal novacom installer (it will ask you to download a webos doctor file, you could select the 2.2.4 Verizon for Pre3). http://universal-novacom-installer.googlecode.com/files/Universal%20Novacom%20Installer.jar
* Install the Palm SDK from https://cdn.downloads.palm.com/sdkdownloads/2.1.0.519/sdkBinaries/Palm_webOS_SDK-Win-2.1.0-519-x64.exe
In Linux Terminal run the following commands:
git clone git://git.webos-internals.org/tools/meta-doctor.git
when it gives "done", type:
cd meta-doctor (PRESS ENTER)
mkdir downloads (PRESS ENTER)
Get this file: http://downloads.help.palm.com/webosdoctor/rom/manta/p224r0d12192011/wdmantaverizon/webosdoctorp224mantaverizon.jar, it's a webos doctor 2.2.4 for a Verizon Pre3, it should work for this as we only need one file to boot the Pre3, save it in meta-doctor/downloads, rename it to webosdoctorp224manta-verizon-2.2.4.jar (not 100% sure about the filename, could also be webosdoctorp224manta-vzw-2.2.4.jar or something else)
Plug in your Pre3 (charge mode) and type:
make DEVICE=pre3 CARRIER=verizon memboot backup (PRESS ENTER)
You will get the uncompressing messages, then your Pre3 will reboot to enter a recovery mode, then you should get some unmounting messages, followed by Cloning messages, and at last some mounting messages. After that your Pre3 should reboot again
This should be more than enough.
There will be a directory inside the clones directory, there's the place where the backup will be.

I sent the instructions to red_sun99 by email as well. I'm happy to help via chat/desktop sharing as well when required

Code:

The steps are as described below (all under Linux or Linux running in VirtualBox):
* Install java if you don't have it www.java.com
* Install the novacom driver, using Jason's Universal novacom installer (it will ask you to download a webos doctor file, you could select the 2.2.4 Verizon for Pre3). http://universal-novacom-installer.googlecode.com/files/Universal%20Novacom%20Installer.jar
* Install the Palm SDK from https://cdn.downloads.palm.com/sdkdownloads/2.1.0.519/sdkBinaries/Palm_webOS_SDK-Win-2.1.0-519-x64.exe
In Linux Terminal run the following commands:
git clone git://git.webos-internals.org/tools/meta-doctor.git
when it gives "done", type:
cd meta-doctor (PRESS ENTER)
mkdir downloads (PRESS ENTER)
Get this file: http://downloads.help.palm.com/webosdoctor/rom/manta/p224r0d12192011/wdmantaverizon/webosdoctorp224mantaverizon.jar, it's a webos doctor 2.2.4 for a Verizon Pre3, it should work for this as we only need one file to boot the Pre3, save it in meta-doctor/downloads, rename it to webosdoctorp224manta-verizon-2.2.4.jar (not 100% sure about the filename, could also be webosdoctorp224manta-vzw-2.2.4.jar or something else)
Plug in your Pre3 (charge mode) and type:
make DEVICE=pre3 CARRIER=verizon memboot backup (PRESS ENTER)
You will get the uncompressing messages, then your Pre3 will reboot to enter a recovery mode, then you should get some unmounting messages, followed by Cloning messages, and at last some mounting messages. After that your Pre3 should reboot again
This should be more than enough.
There will be a directory inside the clones directory, there's the place where the backup will be.

Herrie, I will give a try tonight or over the weekend.

I tried to activate the phone through Impostah in preware but was not successful (unknown rom variant or something like that). Looks like I will have to get some data plan first to activate the phone.

Your distro shoud do fine in general I think, just make sure to have enough space available on your HD :-)

This is because 2.2.5 is not officially recognized by the Production Palm/HP activation servers. It will see it as 9.9.9 version. There is a way around this, so it will display as 2.2.4 and let you activate. But before tampering with this stuff it's better to have a backup first ;-)

For those who come here for page plus question, I have no problem activating the phone through page plus. Just simply dial *22890 after the original phone # was ported. I am now a very happy PPC customer.

I will try to back up the ROM tonight. I was preparing my linux eeePC then realized that Herrie's SDK link is pointing to a windows installation. Tried following SDK installation for Ubuntu Lucid. (https://developer.palm.com/index.php...1585&Itemid=55). Needless to say, it was long and dry... But I am at step 3 now. Should be done by today.

OK. Guys, ROM was backed up and sent to Herrie yesterday. But after he took a quick look, initial report is that there is not much difference.

I was able to sign into Webos account now. Not through impostah, but did a full erase reset and activate through regular process. But App catalog is acting very strange, no icon showing up on the catalog and the paid app is empty. I might just need to doctor it back to 2.2.4 after all.